FBI, White House conflict on Porter case — The Latest

Cohen said, "Just because something isn't true doesn't mean that it can't cause you harm or damage". That's similar to the gender gap for Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2012.

Afternoon of February 7, 2018: The White House continues to send the Sanders and Kelly statements to reporters. Neither of them sought out the Daily Mail, which broke the story.

There was no sign that a move was imminent, according to four people with knowledge of Trump's recent conversations. President Trump speaks with Porter about the allegations and accepts his resignation.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders yesterday said the White House Security Office, which received the FBI reports, hadn't made a final recommendation for "adjudication".

"I think that was a personal decision that Rob made, and one that he was not pressured to do, but one that he made on his own", she told reporters.

He said such an approach would be faster and more effective than an investigation "having to go to 19 different places to talk to people, neighbors and school classmates and so forth".

"He worked very hard and we found out about it recently and I was surprised by it, but we certainly wish him well".

Porter also allegedly abused a third woman while they were dating, but she has declined to come forward publicly. Coats responded to some important questions on Kim Jong Un's motivations, sharing the intelligence community's assessment that Kim Jong Un will not give up his nuclear weapons.

Multiple sources told CNN that Trump has not yet decided whether to replace Kelly but that conversations about who could succeed him have heated up. "I mean, it's truly the lowest of the low, and you have to take it very seriously, and he does take it very seriously", he added referring to his father.

"But if you do that, it has to be a specific interim with controlled access and limited access, and that has to be clear right from the beginning", he said. Google, Twitter and Facebook have been the focus of a lot of congressional scrutiny over the last year, as details of Russia's manipulation of digital platforms came to light. "But it, I guess, comes with the territory".

Tech companies have advanced machine learning tools they can apply to tracking Russian activity and the public sector has more intelligence and information about the full threat picture. Historically, the intelligence community provides appropriately cleared individuals with access to sensitive information.

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday contradicted the White House version of events surrounding the background check for a former top aide accused of domestic abuse by two ex-wives, increasing pressure on the White House to explain what happened. He too denied the allegations. McGahn told Kelly last fall there was concern about information in the background investigation involving Porter's ex-wives, the official said, and Kelly expressed surprise that Porter had previously been married. There would be no crisis of sexual abuse and harassment had supervisors throughout the country guaranteed victims fair treatment in their workplaces. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent letters to the FBI and White House on Wednesday as his panel opened an investigation into the matter. That's unprecedented and dangerous.

Wray's testimony marks the latest development in a scandal that has called into question the judgment of senior members of the White House staff, put new stress on the administration's already strained credibility with the public, and drawn accusations of tone-deaf handling of abuse allegations.

In Trump's first comments after Porter resigned, he praised his former aide. That's exactly what Vladimir Putin wants.